ESPN apologizes for reporting on Michael Sam’s shower habits

On Tuesday, ESPN’s Josina Anderson filed a report from Rams camp that included fairly extensive commentary on the shower habits of Michael Sam. On Wednesday, ESPN apologized for the report.

“ESPN regrets the manner in which we presented our report,” the network said in a statement posted at its media-relations website, via SportsBusiness Daily. “Clearly on Tuesday we collectively failed to meet the standards we have set in reporting on LGBT-related topics in sports.”

The Big Lead has the video of the report, which included a minute or so on whether Sam is avoiding showering with his teammates so that they aren’t uncomfortable.

It’s hard to listen to the explanation about whether Sam avoids showering with teammates without becoming uncomfortable, and ESPN ultimately decided that it was uncomfortable with the discomfort created by the report.

This is how you know reporters are taking it too far with Michael Sam, their reporting his shower habits. Seriously who cares, he is a seventh round pick who happens to be gay, so what? Treat him like other football players, don’t give him this kind of publicity for nothing. How come I don’t here much about Clowney or Mack or Bortles and what they do outside football everyday. I’m not hating on gay people, but this is ridiculous, get back to football, ESPN.

ESPN has made so many mistakes recently with their overall coverage it’s beyond ridiculous. Very amateurish and unprofessional broadcasting, and a lot of suspensions and apologies. ABC/Disney, who’s in charge..anyone?? I won’t watch their weekly programming anymore. If it weren’t for college football on weekends, I wouldn’t watch at all.

Espn helped create this sideshow. Remember this is the same network who fired a reporter for saying a team had a chink in their armour. Because they thought it was offensive lol

700levelvet says:Aug 27, 2014 9:44 AM

Sports fellas and ladies… ALL of you… Report on the games… Fans watch games… And root for our favorite teams… That’s it

tennesseeoilers says:Aug 27, 2014 9:45 AM

Watched the actual video report and it seemed benign. If the report is accurate, then it’s newsworthy simply because, contrary to the PC spin, Sam’s sexual orientation does indeed influence the psychology of locker room chemistry. It’s common sense folks. Think about it … if the NFL ever welcomes a female placekicker, will she shower with the guys?

ESPN is obviously disappointed with the lack of controversy and “distractions” Sam has caused. I’m sure they were looking forward to exploiting the situation for ratings as much as possible. When nothing materialized and it turned out that current NFL players were not, in fact, born in 1935, they realized they were going to have to create their own controversies.

I think ESPN are the only ones who care about Michael Sam being gay. Maybe I am in the minority but I simply do not care if he is gay or not I truly don’t.
I miss the old days of ESPN when they had tons of highlights (of all teams not just who they want), and didn’t want to create the stories. If it wasn’t for college game day (which I think is excellent) I would never watch them.

“Was that wrong? Should I have not done that? I tell you I gotta plead ignorance on this thing because if anyone had said anything to me at all when I first started here that that sort of thing was frowned upon, you know, cause I’ve worked in a lot of offices and I tell you people do that all the time.”

Why would anyone report on that in the first place. It’s sensationalism to try and create some kind of controversy. If owners, GMs, coaches and players can all just move on and treat Sam like any other player then why can’t ESPN?

Chuck Norris says:Aug 27, 2014 10:19 AM

The only people who give a rats azz about Michael Sam’s sexuality are the progressives/liberals. It is the same story over and over. Make a big deal about how he is the first, blah blah blah and act like America isnt an accepting country. Then beat down anyone who dares speak out against the issue. Then when everyone has accepted it, is over it, and doesnt think it is a big deal, they need to drum something up to make it a big deal again. Sort of the, “See, I told you that America isnt accepting” story.

We see it everyday, whether it is a gay athlete, or the presidents skin color, we hear about it over and over and over and over and over and over because the goal isnt acceptance, the goal is to make it a huge deal. And when everything dies down they dont know what to do and need to make something up to make it a big deal again. The President, whether you agree with him or not, isnt white, and was elected twice. That pretty much tells me America (atleast “most”) is over racism. But yet, every story about Obama is that white conservatives disagree with his liberal agenda, not because they have a different political view, but rather, because they are racist…. America has accepted a president of a different skin color, so the liberal media needs to drum up racism because that sells.

America is the most accepting, most tolerant country on earth. But if you listen to Sharpton, Obama, Jackson, MSNBC, etc, it is hard to believe because 22 hours a day they are telling us we arent accepting, we arent tolerant, etc. If you think America isnt tolerant or accepting, I suggest you go to some of the other countries in this world and tell them you are gay, and you will see what intolerant really is

just to be clear….ESPN has been over the top for years. They need to report sports scores, highlights, etc. They need to leave political theories and opinions out of it. However, there are other networks who are there for sports that do the same thing.

I used to watch Sportscenter on a daily basis. Now, i only watch ESPN when my team is playing or if im bored and a game is on.

Im tired of the world apologizing when someone gets offended.

I am a married man to a beautiful lady. If i had to shower with women at my workplace i would be uncomfortable even though i am attracted to women. If i had to shower with men at my workplace i would NOT be uncomfortable with that scenario. But, I can understand that others may not be so comfortable showering with people of the same sex who prefer that sex.

Either way, i detest ESPN for covering such a story. It should be up to the Employer and Employee to determine how to effectively handle this type of a situation. The more and more involvement government has….the more and more they will interfere in routine life.

Remember when the word ‘integrity’ meant something in the media? I barely do. I bet when McDonald’s opened up their first restaurant, the hamburgers were pretty good. Now they serve junk. But nobody cares, because there’s nowhere else to get a $1.19 hamburger. I bet when ESPN first came on the air, their reporting was pretty good. Now they air junk. But nobody cares because there’s nowhere else to get a National Sports Channel on your basic cable/satellite package.

People don’t realize that $5 of their cable bill goes to ESPN on a monthly basis… Outside of college football, MNF, and the US Open, (golf) I have no use for the jockless dweebs who report sports on a daily basis… Their NFL team is even worse with Killer Ray and Trent Dilfer. (nails on a chalk board…)

george1859 says:Aug 27, 2014 10:31 AM

The guy is gay, just like lots of other NFL players in the game today who don’t have the stones to come out of the closet..
Sam is just honest.
Give the man the respect he deserves.
ESPN is a joke.

harrisonhits2 says:Aug 27, 2014 10:33 AM

The worldwide joke of sportscasting. There are many reasons why I haven’t watched or had bspn on my TV for almost 8 years now.

The sole exception has been when they had a Thursday night NFL game I was interested in.

Now that his shower habits are a news story, does ESPN post a reporter in the Rams’ showers to report on the goings-on? What about the rest of the NFL? Could there be shower stories on other teams? Let’s post reporters in all the showers and see if we can come up with something. After all, this is now a legitimate story!

This is not all on Josina. Either she found out the information and ran it by producers or they told her specifically to ask about how he was being received in the locker room. You can argue that information shouldn’t have been reported, and I would agree, but it is out of the ordinary that a player wouldn’t be showering with the rest.

I can’t believe an NFL locker room does not have private showers. The locker room at my gym has private showers so I can shower without putting on a show for all the closeted married guys who like to linger and lurk. Why wouldn’t an NFL locker room provide this same privacy to those who want it?

I hope he gets cut just so I can turn on ESPN and NFL Network and not hear about these kinds of things. I mean jesus they act like there was never a gay player before. I’m sure there has been more than a couple.

TheWizard says:Aug 27, 2014 11:33 AM

I’m not on board with all this “gay rights” business, but I can’t understand anybody being uncomfortable with showering in a locker room with a gay male present.

Tawdry and salacious storytelling is all that ESPN is about these days. Each day the network stoops to newer lows and becomes more irrelevant. They need to cut their staff in half then focus on the things in sports that really matter.